Sun completes its MySQL purchase, looks ahead to Oracle, MS

Sun Microsystems today confirmed it has completed its acquisition of MySQL, and announced all MySQL products are now part of the Sun worldwide sales and support network.

In addition, MySQL CEO Marten Mickos officially joined Sun as the new senior vice president of the company's database group.

Sun announced just six weeks ago it would spend $1 billion -- $800 million in cash and $200 million in assumed options -- to purchase the open source database company. The move will help Sun better compete with Microsoft, Oracle and IBM in the database market, which continues to be a lucrative market.

According to Sun and MySQL, more than 100 million copies of the database software has been downloaded and distributed since its first public launch. To ensure the number of downloads continues to increase, Sun announced a new year-round global database subscription for all MySQL products, allowing companies to use MySQL with Sun support starting now.

Supporters of the MySQL buyout claim the deal will offer a new level of financial backing to the products, but not everyone has been pleased with the news. Critics of the deal said Sun must now take the time to fix lingering scalability limitations that remain within MySQL.

Sun will now begin a global advertising campaign for MySQL, with several Sun executives, including CEO Jonathan Schwartz, going on a world tour to woo new clients. The tour will wrap up with the annual MySQL Conference & Expo, which takes place in Santa Clara, California in mid-April.

"Starting today, we're rolling out global programs to raise awareness and adoption of MySQL among more established enterprises - you'll see ads like this (to the right) targeting institutions and independent software/service vendors (ISV's) looking to standardize on open source architectures," Schwartz wrote on his official Sun blog.

Schwartz also hinted that further open source acquisitions could be in the company's future.